Ah, the traditions of tennis. Unfortunately, one the traditions of the sport we love is it’s absolute ludicrous TV programming. If you awoke early like me hoping to catch live semifinal action today from Paris on your TV here in the U.S., forget it, because it’s not on.

After watching countless hours of live coverage on ESPN2 and the Tennis Channel how could I forget that thanks to NBC and the geniuses who run and market top tier tennis, the semifinals from Paris are again on tape delay which means if you want to watch either or both Fernando Gonzalez v. Robin Soderling and Roger Federer v. Juan Martin Del Potro live as it happens, don’t bother switching on your televisions today, it won’t be on.

The tradition continues…Online streaming here I come.

As for the matches, I love both Gonzales and Federer today and both pretty easily. Gonzalez is a true claycourter, Soderling is not. Gonzo’s also won the last four meetings against the Swede and I know Robin’s been red-hot but I just think the Chilean has the experience of having been to this stage before.

In the second semifinal I think DelPo will keep things close against Federer who will be feeling the nerves. But Roger is just too darn close to let it slip away now. The nerves, the pressure and the expectations are there and I expect Roger will handle what’s to come.

404 Comments for Federer the Focus at Tape-Delayed French Open Semifinals

Cindy_Brady Says:

I’m thoroughly disgusted with the coverage of the mens semi-finals. Between three networks (tennis channel, ESNP2, and NBC) we can’t get the matches live.

UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

The ATP wants to market tennis in the U.S better then show the Damn matches live.

NBC is the problem. They want the rights to the finals and semi-finals but refuse to show the semis live. Disgraceful. If you can’t show them live then give the deal up to another network. Instead the Tennis channel is showing the woman’s semi-final from yesterday. They are probably just as frustrated with NBC as everyone else.

Regarding your comment on Federer’s match, The Switzerland Machine (as I call him) he is the master on handling pressure games, better proof than his latest match against Haas. Self explanatory. I will certainly win the french open…..You will have to update your CARRER GRAND SLAM winners Stats!!!!

About NBC and ESPN2….. They just &^*$@

By the way, Never been in this web before…..looks pretty GOOOD…..Keep going my Friend.

Gonzo is not totally out of this, but the Swede looks good. I of course think my question in my pre-tournament article about “When did the last Swede win Roland Garros?” has destined Soderling for the title.

I’m assuming NBC will go live when they come on the air in 27 minutes.

I’ve been as critical of TV coverage of tennis as anyone, but if tennis actually got better than a near-zero rating these days, both semis would be on live. And no, ratings aren’t low because of poor coverage. We get poor coverage because tennis ratings are low. Wimbledon and the U.S. Open have wall-to-wall live coverage, and ratings stink for those tournaments, too.

So the answer to make ratings better is to tape delay coverage for the semis when the rest of the tournament was shown live?

That makes no sense.

Roger Federer can potentially make history. This should be shown live both in the semis and finals.
Who ever makes these bone head decisions at NBC should be fired.

If NBC wants to show their breakfast at the French Open live, then fine. Do it. But don’t hog the rights to the semis and show the matches tape delayed. Allow other networks to air them live. The tennis network or ESNP could do it easily.

Tennis will never get better ratings unless it gets better coverage. NBC takes all the drama out of it by broadcasting something everyone knows the results of. Many viewers won’t watch on that basis. The whole thing just stinks!

Unfortunately for us, Funches is dead accurate. The NBC’s decision to tape-delay is centered on TV ratings.

Speculation: FO people can’t do much better either – I guess they look at ideal combo of dollars and coverage. NBC probably can give the tournament a better (read as more audience) tape-delayed coverage than live coverage on a special channel. This probably will continue until Tennis on TV crosses a popularity threshold.

What’s right isn’t an issue. Of course showing both matches live would be right.

The bottom line is viewers, and tennis actually gets surprisingly good coverage in the U.S. considering its lack of ratings, much better than hockey, which is more popular. For years I’ve been scared that tennis coverage would go the way of track of field here – virtually nonexistent. Instead, live hours of all grand slams has increased dramatically, although it stinks that The Tennis Channel has most of the live coverage of the French Open. You want to talk about something killing the sport – having its primary carrier being a channel almost no casual fan is aware of is a huge problem.

wow… soderling just played 2 bad service games at the end of 3rd and 4th sets.. and now its anybody’s game. Gonzo did well to hang in there… in the 3rd set when it felt like Soderling was outplaying him from the baseline.

Congrats to Soderling. A great match! This is something else for him, I mean can you imagine if he won the tournament? It would certainly justify his conquering of Rafa, though I think he’s already done that.

It looks like NBC won’t have any coverage of the Federer match. That’s on them, not the tape-delay policy. They should have just shown the end of the first match live. What they’re doing will hurt whatever ratings they would have gotten, so it’s an idiotic self-defeating move.

It was a very tense match, I am still nervous. They were both nervous too you could see that in their faces and the strokes.
Soderling made a “nervous” volley on the line as the comentor said to go up 30-0. If that ball was out maybe things will be different, but he was very nervpus serving for it. This is a good sign for Fed, Soderling can have mental issues if he happens to be leading on Sunday (assuming Fed will pass DelPo).

Great win for Soderling and even greater to see Gonzo fighting so hard.

hi everyone..im so upset with NBC..this is so so disrespectful for the fans ..this a grand slam semifinal for god sake ..anyone know a good live stream ..i cant find anything that works right now..thanx for you help

My gut feeling – Soderling’ll win this FO ! The way he came back today scares me ! I was praying for Gonzo’s win, but as I said in another thread, only Soderling deserves to win this FO, not coz he beat Rafa but coz he’s playing the best tennis there.

I’m a journalist in my non-tennis watching time, so I called NBC and requested to speak to someone who could give an official explanation as to why they weren’t showing the tape of Gonzo-Soderling when they could have shown Federer live.

They put me on hold, then transferred me to a viewer comment machine.

I hung up and called back, but got a busy signal. Called again. Busy. Called again. Busy.

Called a third time. The same intern then said the contract with other television partners did not allow NBC to show the Federer match, which I believe. There’s no way NBC would choose not to show the match people care about live in favor of the match much fewer people care about on tape.

My guess is NBC’s contract calls for it air the first semifinal, and the money in the contract is not high enough for NBC to influence the schedule and get the Federer match to be played first. It’s an idiotic contract, but I remember this happening in the past, where the less attractive semifinal got aired. There’s just never been this cavernous a difference between the two matches before.

If you want to air a complaint with NBC, the phone number is 212-664-2014.

And for what it’s worth, The Tennis Channel can’t come on until 4 p.m. Eastern time today because NBC’s Pacific Time Zone tape of its Eastern Time zone tape won’t be over until then. I would assume the Tennis Channel would show the Federer match first.

Federer, after starting very sharply, is being overpowered by del potro. That is ominous, for this is an opponent with a champion’s mentality, no doubt. del Potro, like Soderling, has come of age. And Federer, well, looks his age.

This feels a bit like Safin sweeping through Sampras. I don’t see del Potro relinquishing his hold on the match. This is a promising player becoming great before our eyes.

Those who doubted Del Potro need to finally acknowledge his talent if they are watching this match. As far as Fed’s pre-match smile is concerned, it might very well be fickle-mindedness and the seemingly worried Del Potro might very well be concentrating!

I tried sending NBC an email asking why the heck they weren’t showing the matches live. And in that email I said that since they don’t respect the sport, they should give up their exclusive rights and let another network (ESPN) that does show it live. Guess what happened? The email I sent to the address I from NBC’s “Contact Us” page – nbcsports@nbcuni.com – bounced back. I tried again using nbcsports@nbc.com and again it bounced back. I can only hope that the reason for it is the tons of emails others have been sending in to NBC to complain.

Del Po’s attacking game today is great, so far. But it seems like you guys are exaggerating. He’s won one set and you’re already saying he has a hold on the match. So did Haas, so did Acasuso. The point is, can he sustain this level? He’d have to take this in three sets, or four maximum. If it goes to five, the final spot goes to Fed. But it’s nice for Del Po that he’s finally taken a set off Fed. I hope he can continue playing with confidence and passion.

B.t.w. I’d like to request Fed to lose as early as possible to Del Potro so that he’s fresh to face Soderling. After all Delpo has more chance to win than Fed against Robin i.m.o ! It’ll be less painful for me if Fed loses to JMDP instead of Soderling.

Getting these holds was c ritical for Fed. At 3-6, 0-1, 15-30 he looked like he was out on his feet to borrow a term from boxing. Now he is at least steadied. Obviously, winning the second set is huge, but being in the match gives a player a chance even if far behind – being steamrolled does not.

Roger is not as aggressive as he needs to be. He needs to step up the court and play his game. Scrambling for balls from three meters behind the baseline like a Nadal is not what he’s good at and is not gonna make him break JMDP.

DelPo felt the pressure and made errors he wasn´t doing in the tiebreak. Great hold for Fed, who is not playing bad at all, delPo that is playing excelnet so far. His serve is showing us that if he develop thius weapon a litle more, he is for sure n. 1 contender in the future.

Is anyone else about to piss themselves? I hate sports. I’m gonna die early from a heart attack after watching Sampras’s son (who I’m declaring my favorite player in 15 years) lose to Agassi’s son (my Nadal in 15 years) in the Wimbledon final.

don’t have a lap top, so can’t follow you guys’ comments. But I thought del Potro had the better of the set – till tie break, and that, really, all hinged on the first point which, after all clipped top of the net. Well, Fed’s a fighter – but if del potro keeps serving like he is……

So far Del Potro has been crazy good on his serve. If his level dis just 10%, he’ll be out in no time. It all depends on his level and his ability to maintain it, coz Fed is not playing badly (he’s not playing his best either).

good job from delpo right now ..i thought he was just going down graded his tennis after loosing badly the tiebreak but no he is holding on together so far..this kid has matured right in from our eyes..federer playing great as well..his first serve is working nicely now..

I’m not nervous anymore for Fed as I know even if he somehow manages to win this match, he’s not gonna win the French Open. I’d be the happiest person if he does it but being realistic and honest, I never see it happening!

huh, Soderling struggled to five sets against Gonzalez, so who knows? Fed’s still the favorite for the title. It goes almost without saying. How could he not be, as he has more experience than the two guys still standing, and he has the crowd and media on his side which can add momentum. Perhaps pressure too but Fed’s used to that.

Fed must be really frustrade not being able to break DelPo serve all match. Last game when DelPo was serving 0-30 he made silly choices that made delPo grown even more. Let´s see if he regroup in the fourth.

Okay, now that game admittedly was spectacular by JMDP. The net point and the returns, just ripping them. He’s reading Federer’s serve well or something. It’s not as simple as height matters because it doesn’t help Karlovic all that much. Del Po has more game than simply height. But maybe on the kick serves it has helped.

del Potro is back to first set – overwhelming Fed. He plays badly in one service game – but so does fed. del Potro’s serve still mighty good. Fed’s serve just not there today, and that tells the tale. Hard to see how he can come back now, because del Potro will not falter. He’s a toughie, a true champion in the making

All I mean by height matters is it helps at picking out angles and hitting big serves/getting free points when needed. JMDP winning 4 straight tournaments last Summer and playing into draws in NY, Melbourne and Paris shows me he is more than just tall, but I am sure Federer wishes he had a Becker type serve now and again to get a few more free points himself.

How is Fed’s serve not there. I mean he’s not served many aces, I’ll concede that. But he’s won 72% of first serves and is getting over 60% of his first serves in. Plus he’s winning 50% of second serves. I just think that Del Po is serving slightly better. He’s hitting more winners but his errors are in the same ballpark as Fed’s. Anyhow, Fed’s serve has been much much worse in other matches, but since Madrid, even in Rome, it’s been much more consistent. This is still anyone’s match.

Even if at this point Fed is thinking that he’ll do his best to hold serve so that he might take the fourth in a tie breaker, what the hell is he gonna do in the fifth where he HAS TO break if he wants to win????

I like what fed did that service game to start the 5th. He took a lot off those first serves, hit a high %. Del Potro’s height + clay bounces gives him an advantage on returning Federer’s kick serve. A couple of them barely looked 110mph.

His serving today is outstanding.
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Nadal easily beat Soderling a month ago, too. Different circumstances and venue. Del Potro always had it in him to take it to Federer. He just has belief. When you have belief everything in your game improves including a 6-6 mans serve.

cindy… that 6-1, 6-0 score nadal had over soderling wasn’t a good indication of how easy the match was. the games were a lot closer than the results indicated and many of them could have gone to soderling then too.

I disagree. DelPo is pretty strong mentally. Maybe he is (hopefully he is), but, I was of Sean’s thinking that Fed would be able to gain control of the match after the tb, but DelPo stood his ground. I just don’t know anymore. Damn this sport. Ffl.

well, I thought that just as Fed’s age was against him in first 3 sets – he looked just a little past it – here, it helped him. Experience and craftiness -plus del Potro looked a little weary. The outcome looks obvious now – hubris, help!

Fed’s clearly going to win. Experience on his side, crowd on his side. Plus better fitness. Del Po is not used to any of this. I have seen him cramp before and his serve is going off. So Fed enters the fifth with mucho momentum. But I am very please with Del Po’s efforts today. Major kudos to him for pushing Fed to another 5 setter.

I’m still not calm. Soderling looked down and out against Gonzo who in the fifth and came back. I’ve watched Safin blow several leads this year. Fed hasn’t won it yet. It’s not over until the last point is played.

You gotta give Del Potro a lot of credit here, he’s clearly really tired (the announcers just commented that his ball tosses have been all over the place the last two games) but he’s fighting hard.

Fitness determined this match though for sure. Roger is playing well now (notwithstanding his weak returns), but if Del Potro were serving like he did in the 3rd set Roger would be in a lot of trouble.

I’m fair on both sides. I don’t like Federer but I do respect his tennis and his place in history. I’ve always thought he was a bit of a phony. If he does go on and win this event I think he should be regarded as the greatest player.

The guy’s got the baseline shots, and he’s swinging freely, but Federer is moving a lot better and he’s now winning every long rally. I wouldn’t be surprised if Fed clawed back into DP’s service game here down 40-15.

(Maybe I’m a purist but I hate it when huge dudes have two handed backhands — just doesn’t look right to me, that’s what I did when I was 12.)

Probably the first service game where Federer got 3 big first serves to go in — naturally he blows him off the court. Honestly he served so badly early, the turnaround is as extreme as I can remember seeing from him.

Totally different player the 4th and 5th sets. I’m really impressed with how del potro fought back, but I’m even more shocked by Federer right now.

Best match I can remember watching because of the huge momentum shift from 3rd to 4th set. Del Potro needs to get in better shape, he’s a monster and he’s going to be amazing.

Great matches… both the semi-finals.. all 4 played great (in pactches). Fed was able to do what Gonzo could not.. surrender a break in final set and still win. So two 5-setters for fed already at RG this year… same as in AO.

Though Fed won, I have to say that I have never seen Fed as nervous as in today’s match except in Wimbledon 2008 and Aus Open 2009 final vs Rafa and that shows Del Potro’s nothing if not the real deal.

what a gutsy performance from del Potro! His serve broke down in 5th set – but that’s surely the good news for him. For you can just see the serve steadily improving over the months, and when he can maintain form with it over 5 sets, he’s going to be so difficult to beat. Definitely top 5 now, not the 4.

once again, we see how Federer can – despite pusillanimous viewers like me – pace himself; because the fact is, he can no longer sustain the old high levels. So those who say he’s in big trouble because he always needs to go to the final round these days are partly right. But for the time being, it seems Fed is able to play near to his best for just long enough for it to count. And at the right moments.

It’s all incredibly nerve wracking, and expect more of the same Sunday. I give slight edge to Soderling, player of the tourney so far. But don’t count out the old fox.

Del Potro has the game and pretty good movement for his size, but not the experience quite yet at these stages in the slams. It also looked like his conditioning needs a bit more work to hold up in those 5 setters. His confidence seemed rock solid at first but I think that started to go down from the 3rd set, and his 1st serve percentage was really going down the tubes.

He definitely has the game to win a slam though, maybe one day with more training. Very impressive play throughout!

I think Soderling will put up a good fight, you know why? Becasue the guy is so deraanged that he won’t realize the significance od the match and that’s going to make him swing more freely. He just doesn’t give a damn about what Fed can accomplish.

But the edge goes to Federer and by quite a decnt margin. Sod is coming out of a five setter, which is something he doesn’t do very often becasue he doesn’t go so far in slams. He has never played an entire fortnight of best-of-five tennis before. Fed has, and his fitness is better for it.

They could have made a season of Survivor about this tournament. This is one of the craziest slams ever. Federer has reached the final of the “Wacky Slam”. Coincidentally or not, this echoes Agassi’s run from ten years ago. I’m sure most know that Andre’s the trophy presenter this year.
One more hurdle to go.

Soderling.. because he beat Nadal ofcourse.. and if he wins, he would have beaten Federer as well… both the finalists of last year plus not to mention Ferrer, Davydenko and Gonzo.

And Federer… because he really has shown some gusty performances this year coming from behind against Acasuso, Hass and tonight.. and also held off challengers like Monfils and Del Potro and Soderling(if he wins).

Del-Po lost for 2 main reasons. 1. He’s not in good enough shape to sustain high pressure for 5 sets. This is where Fed has proven himself. 2. He doesn’t have the experience yet. But this match will definitely go a long way to helping him. Fed continues to show incredible mental strength all the way through to the end. He’s going to hit a tornado in Soderling but you have to give the edge to Fed. I think I heard that Sod hasn’t been past the quarters in any significant tournament?

Here are the key Roger slam records:
19 finals – tied with Lendl
10 straight finals – the next best is perhaps the 4 from Laver
20 straight semis – the next best is 10 by Lendl and Laver
4th straight final at RG, 5 straight wins at US Open and Wimbledon

The greatest feat of all is that despite illnesses (mono), injuries (back), off days, marriage and all the impact on focus and motivation to top athletes, Roger Federer once he bagan his run has avoided the upsets in early rounds like no other before him and now.

Thanks for all the comments M8′s. I wasn’t able to watch here in the U.S. and was pretty much living vicariously through your texts. Strangely enough, I even was getting nervous just through reading these.

This is just destiny now for Fed. So many comebacks from death and defeat.

Also the comments were hilarious on this board. People were going from extreme to extreme. You read one;
“That’s it Fed’s done” “Del Potro is definately taking it”

Then two lines later after Fed breaks,
“Fed is definately winning this one”

When was the last time we had such great 5-setters in both semis of a slam? Seriously, it’s been a long time. There was Safin-Fed in one semi way back when, and Verdasco-Nadal this year. But 2? And these were great 5 setters. Truly great. DelPo was awesome. Soderling, man I’m scared. But Soderling plays a lot like DelPo, big serve, big off both sides. Hopefully that will help Federer because he won’t be caught as off-guard if he was coming off a win off of Hewitt or something.

jane, just scrolled thru above comments, and found this: “How is Fed’s serve not there. I mean he’s not served many aces, I’ll concede that. But he’s won 72% of first serves and is getting over 60% of his first serves in.”

The reference is to me.(b.t.w., how d’you get such quick access to stats: impressive!). Here, jane, imo, stats are misleading. My impression as I was watching is that at that stage of the match , Fed’s serve was utterly lacking bite. You can serve 100%, but if they’re dollies, what’s the point. I don’t know why Fed’s serves were so (relatively) soft – but that’s how I saw it. Ans in the meantime. del Potro’s was awesome. As the match went on, Fed’s serve became sharper, and Del Pot’s wnet away.

As I said above, with fed, it all seems to be about timing these days, since he can’t keep the momentum going for too long. With del Potro, the future is very bright. Once he’s got his fitness to Fed’s level, who will stop him?

grendel – I just got a new used laptop which is brill! i can still watch on the t.v. but have the stats and blog at the ready. It’s loads of fun. Anyhow, I see what you mean and could even apply it to more of Fed’s shots; I thought he was going for it more later in the match as Del Po tired; however, I do think credit should go to Del Po who was returning serves that wouldn’t've been easy for other players to return. More and more matches seem like tangoes to me. LOL. It really is what’s going on with both players, not only one. I think that was why I responded to your point as I thought that Fed wasn’t serving badly at all (like remember around the AO, how poorly he was serving?), but that Del Po was leaning into the returns and neutralizing any kick.

Tennis channel had the rights to the Fed/Del Potro match. NBC had the rights to the Soderling/Gonzo match. Since the start of the 2nd match is determined by the length and end of the 1st, Tennis channel had no way of properly scheduling a live feed, thus the tape delay. NBC just wanted a finite 3 hour package of tennis.

What they need is ONE network to get the rights to both semis and broadcast them back to avoid this CRAPOLA in the future.

I have ESPN360 but unfortunately I didn’t have the time to watch. I had my own battle going on elsewhere. here’s a link for you on Nadal’s queens pull-out. You’ve probably read the story but read the posts and they should give you some hope and comfort on how many other fans like your Nadal, so smile and don’t worry be happy. Whenever Roddick pulls out of any match I like to read the posts on Yahoo and they make me feel better to know that he has some fans elsewhere except not on Tennis.X.